Ace listen to Noa’s story and his heart was cold as ice in the end. He couldn’t believe this woman’s patience and fortitude to work under her tribe’s executioner for all these years.
He couldn’t help but compare himself with her. When Dulce destroyed his hometown, he nearly went insane with hatred and vengeance. But Noa kept persisting and waiting for the day when she could win it all.
But Livy was just too cautious with whatever he does, and he was too powerful for Noa to fight against. She was simply living under the delusion, but she never gave up.
If she hadn’t trusted him completely after she joined Thief House, and he showed genuine kindness to her, she would’ve never told him about herself and the biggest secret she kept to herself for all these years.
Noa ever felt a sense of relief after telling Ace about this secret that she had carried for all these years.
“Don’t worry now that you’ve joined Thief House. You can get your revenge soon, and I’ll help you with it.” Ace solemnly promised.
He had gone through something similar, and he knew just how painful it was to constantly live under the same sky as your enemy, which you can’t touch.
“NO! I want to do it myself! I’ll annihilate the entire Dark Ocean Demon Tribe in front of Livy before killing him!” Noa quickly rejected Ace’s kind intention and retort with killing intent.
Ace merely chuckled coldly and repartee, “Heh, why did we need to kill them? Don’t forget I’m a thief, and now you are too. A thief took revenge differently. Imagine if you were to theft away the entire wealth of Dark Ocean Demon Tribe and then left your name arrogantly, what would Demon Duke Livy feel and its repercussions?”
Noa’s eyes narrowed into slits when she heard Ace’s question. She didn’t even consider this option, but now that Ace has raised this question, she suddenly thought about it.
“H-he’ll despise by his entire tribe and probably strip off his Demon Duke title and his powerful status and punish by his father!” Noa mumbled coldly, with a hint of elation.
“Heh, you said it yourself. It would be far worse than killing him. He might commit suicide or turned into a complete madman.”
Ace couldn’t help but remembered Dulce’s twisted face filled with madness and despair and felt deep satisfaction!
Noa also felt this was a better idea than killing Livy and letting him off too easily. The scene of Ace taking away the name board appeared in her mind.
Noa glanced at Ace with a hint of admiration in her eyes and earnestly said, “Leader, please teach me the way of thief!”
She could tell by Ace’s previous action of taking the Soul Trapping Banyan Tree timber that he was very good at this thing, and that’s also why the ‘Goddess of Thieves’ chose him as well.
‘Since I’m a thief now, I have to act and think like one!’
“Don’t worry about it. But it’s not the time yet. We first have to leave this place. We can’t take on Demon Duke Livy right now. But I can assure you we’ll be back!” Ace confidently declared.
“I’ll follow Leader arrangements then.” Noa nodded with a hint of understanding in her eyes.
She also knew it wasn’t time yet and once she got all those soul techniques and skills in the thief assassin shop, it won’t be too late for her sweet revenge!
“Give me a few hours, and I’ll show you the first and essential skill of a thief!” Ace said while sitting cross-legged and closing his eyes.
Noa’s eyes shimmered with confusion, but she didn’t disturb Ace, since he looked quite confident before he closed his eyes. She also wanted to see what he’ll do and this will also give her a chance to heal her injuries!
Ace was naturally going to heal his soul with the reward he just received after completing the side mission, and after that’s, he’ll enhance his skills, so he could safely escape this place.
=====
[Side Mission]
[Mission: Please issue a Thief House Mission worth 100 or more House Points]
[Status: Complete]
[Reward: One Heavenly Soul Rejuvenation Pill (Grade-1) has been transferred to the living thief’s space.]
=====
Ace didn’t delay, he sent his sense into the thief’s space and saw an almost transparent purple pill with a golden circle has appeared. He knew this was the Heavenly Soul Rejuvenation Pill he had just earned.
‘This is my first time taking a Soul type alchemy pill.’ Ace was excited since he would be able to completely heal his soul core with this pill and become whole again.
With a thought, that fingernail-size purple pill appeared in his mouth and instantly tuned into purple mist directly spread toward his head.
Ace felt like the icy wind has just entered his mind, and this feeling was quite refreshing. However, the very next moment, this chilly feeling turned into intense pain like thousands of needles just stabbed into his brain.
Ace’s face turned pale and thick throbbing veins appeared on his forehead. He never thought this medicine effect would be this compelling and painful. Compared with the soul points, this was pure torture.
But he endured with gritted teeth and coolly observed the restoring soul core little by little.
After an hour of painful experience, Ace was drenched in sweat and his breath was slightly hasted.
Noa also notice this change in Ace and become somewhat worried, but she didn’t disturb him and only observe. She could tell he was using some pill, and it will only do more harm than good if she interfered.
At this moment, the last bit of the orange soul’s core became complete and a huge amount of wind soul Qi was released the very next moment.
Ace suddenly felt all the pain he just experienced fade and a warm sensation wash over his whole true soul like a tilde wave, almost making him moan.
His brutally crack true soul started to mend at an astonishing speed under the orange soul Qi. Ace didn’t know how lucky he was to have the soul core holding his true soul together or without it, he would be dead with this kind of damaged soul, long ago.
The moment his true soul was repaired by the soul core, the orange soul core expand two folds! Before, it was like a little pea circling in the center of his true soul, but now it was like a fiery marble. Furthermore, he could also feel this true soul has become sturdier and more vigorous.
‘Is this the effect of the complete black wind soul technique?’
This was the only plausible explanation since he hadn’t noticed it before; when his soul core become stage three because of his injury. He only thought it would remain the same, but it seemed he has greatly underestimated the heaven stealer technique prowess.
Right at this moment, Ace felt something very different and magical for the first time after the transformation of Soul Core was done. He felt like he could use his soul Qi as effectively and as much as his martial Qi.
“[This is the harmony between body and soul that host just felt. After host martial cultivation and soul cultivation became the same and harmonized, the host didn’t have to worry about using or overdrawing too much soul Qi anymore. As long as the host had martial Qi or soul Qi, you won’t feel tired or overdrawn ever again.]”
The system’s sudden voice and astonishing information bewildered Ace, it was just this voice that contained a hint of playfulness.
But Ace didn’t focus on this since this news elated him because he was always on edge about whenever he used his soul Qi too much since his physique took quite a toll.
‘Now, this is what I called true advantage!’
Ace was very satisfied with this fresh development, and he was even more confident in himself than before. Not overconfident, though!
“System, open the pill shop.”
Ace didn’t forget he was still trapped in the enemy’s den, and he can’t become too relaxed or careless, or he won’t even know how he loses again, just like what happened with Gordon.
=====
[Available Pills]
[Grade-1 Healing Pills]
[Price: 1,000TP, Per Pill]
—
[Grade-1 Heaven Qi Recovery Pills]
[Price: 500TP, Per Pill]
—
[Low-Grade Insight Pills]
[Description: Instantly Raised any skill proficiency by a single stage]
Ace was astonishing seeing the big change in the heavenly stealer pill description and quickly understood what has caused this change.
‘This pill was spouse to help me breakthrough any bottleneck I encounter in my cultivation but now that I can’t encounter any bottleneck which made this pill useless, it turned into EXP Pill instead.
‘Well, it’s not like I’m complaining, it’s just that if I can just unlock the heaven stealer soul pill as well, my life would be much easier. Nevertheless, now I’m only required to collect soul points since these pills will last for a while!’